Two Worlds Collide
by theoneandonlyarrow
Summary: This is the story of the 9th and 10th Digidestined. It follows the basic storyline for most of the way, but the two have their own storyline for a good portion of it. The digimon are real digimon. Let me know what you think.
1. Digidestined? Us?

Two Worlds Collide:

The Story of the Ninth and Tenth Digidestined

Digidestined? Us?

We weren't ready for it. We were just walking around outside, looking for something to do. We never actually expected to _find_ anything…

It looked like the Northern Lights. Problem was, it was to the East. It looked like two comets shooting straight towards us. Problem was, they were too small.

The comets hit the ground before us. I turned to Cole, my best friend. "Whoa!!! Look at those!" We did.

They floated up into the air in front of us. They looked like a hand-held video game or something. The screens glowed. "They look… cool." That was all he said. That was all he had to say. We each picked one up. Suddenly, we were zooming towards the sky, then everything was dark.

We woke up in a meadow. I stood up, and shook my head. "Where… where are we, Cole?"

"I don't know, Andrew… But we're not in Kansas anymore."

I chuckled. It was nice to have a small bit of humor, at least. Of course we weren't from Kansas, far from it. Actually, we were Californian.

I felt something small bump against my leg. "What's Kansas?" It kept bumping my leg. I looked down. It looked like a ball of fluff with a frill and a tail. The tail was pushing it forward at my leg. "What's Kansas, Andrew, huh? Huh? What's Kansas?"

Cole and I exchanged looks, then Cole looked down at the thing. "It's a state… who… what are you, and how do you know my name?"

"My name's Frimon, and I'm a digimon! We're partners!!!"

We nodded, voices dripping with sarcasm. "Right…"

A sound like a whistle could be heard, then what looked like a missile with arms came into the clearing, shouting something. "Evacuate, evacuate!!!"

Cole and I both, at the same time, said, "Oh god, I'm dreaming…" our voices filled with incredulous disbelief.

Frimon called out to the… whatever it was. "Missimon! What's going on?"

Missimon, or whatever it was called, stopped for a moment. Or, rather, it circled around us for a moment. We later found out that Missimon can never stop moving. "Airdramon's coming!!"

"But Airdramon's a good guy."

"He got a black gear."

Frimon's eyes widened, which seemed impossible due to the size they already were. "You're kidding! Well… these are humans, I think!"

Missimon seemed to think about this. "Hey, that must be Cole, my partner!!" Then he saw the devices on the ground. "THIS IS THEM!!! THEY HAVE THEM!!!" He pointed at the little video game things we'd picked up before everything went black.

I stared at them blankly. "But… that can't be possible…" Cole and I were dumbfounded. "This is just a dream!!!"

We walked over to the devices and picked them up. As we picked them up, the screens began glow. A long, blue, snake-like figure with red, scaly wings and a skull mask over its face appeared over the tree line.

Before we knew what was happening, the two… creatures… had started to glow.

"Frimon, digivolve to… Leormon!!!"

"Missimon, digivolve to… Commandramon!!!"

"What the hell?" I said.

Suddenly, the one who had called himself Commandramon, a small, almost pixilated blue, military garbed tyrannosaur, started firing an assault rifle at the incoming enemy. "M16 Assassin!!!"

The cat-like one, Leormon, started leaping up a tree, climbing and climbing until he finally leapt onto the flying creature's back. He ran along the length of the creature until he came to a small black bump, and, even from where I was, I could see his eyes widen for half a second. "Yep, he's got one!!! Leo Claw!" He swiped a claw at it, and the bump shattered. The flying… digimon… stopped seeing red all of a sudden as Leormon leapt down and landed squarely on my head, apparently content to stay there.

"Thank you… you have saved me from the evil that is Devimon…" And it flew off.

"Alright, both of you, from the beginning, what's going on here?"

Commandramon sighed and set the gun down. "Well, see, there's this evil, Champion level digimon called Devimon. He's trying to take over the Digital World."

Cole and I exchanged glances, then broke out laughing. "Digital World? We _must_ be dreaming," Cole laughed.

Leormon disagreed, and made it very clear to my scalp. To this day I hope he never does it again. "This is _not_ a dream." And with how my head suddenly felt, I wasn't inclined to agree with Cole anymore.

So Commandramon continued. "Devimon's controlling digimon with his Black Gears; he puts them into their bodies and it gives him control of them."

I mulled this over a minute. "You called him a Champion level… what does that mean?"

Leormon answered that. "Well, there's a lot of different levels of digimon. We start out as eggs, then when we hatch, we're babies!!"

Commandramon caught the end of that. "Then, after that, we're In-Training, until we digivolve into Rookies. Leormon and I are Rookies. Then comes Champion, then Ultimate, and finally, very last level, is Mega."

"So… you need _our_ help to stop Devimon? Why doesn't everyone just team up against him?" That was Cole.

"We don't know how," came Commandramon's response.

So we set off in search of Devimon. We hadn't figured out what we were going to do or how we were going to do it, but we _had_ figured that that we _were_ going to do it… whatever _it_ was.

We'd been walking for a couple of days uneventfully, when, out of nowhere, we saw a large dog, quite like a Doberman. Leormon and Commandramon seemed delighted, and my device, which had recently been labeled as a Digivice was glowing, and it suddenly beeped. A small thing popped up on the screen, giving information on the digimon.

"It's Dobermon!" Commandramon seemed to think this was a good thing. I don't know much about Dobermon, but I know a thing or two about animals, dogs and cats especially. When a dog is growling like that one was, you just didn't mess with it… you turned tail and went the other direction. But something stopped me from doing that, or rather, some_one_ stopped me. Leormon leapt out in front as the dog digimon attacked.

The dog had opened its mouth, and a ball of darkness had formed there. "Grau Realm!!" the dog cried as the ball fired from its mouth. Leormon jumped up in front of me to take the hit. I was frozen in terror, but that digivice glowed again, and Leormon glowed.

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!" Suddenly, the cat was a lion, demonstrated as such by his mane, which was in dreadlocks. But, somehow, he had two tails. Oh, and the earrings. Lions aren't supposed to have earrings. But, well, that's how things work, isn't it? Liamon returned the attack. "Thunder of Kings!!" His mane sparked with electricity and suddenly bolts of it leapt from him, striking the dog. I could now see a black gear in the dog's back, just as it was shattering into a million pieces. The dog stood there, panting. In a gruff voice, it spoke. "Thank you… Devimon… must be… stopped…" After that, the digimon ran off, leaving us on our own. Liamon dedigivolved immediately afterwards.

"That was interesting…" Cole commented dully.

I shrugged, and we started to walk again.

We were getting up towards a mountain the next day… I don't know _how_ the scenery could _possibly_ change so fast. My digivice started to glow, and Cole and I were looking around, curiously. After a moment, we sighed and, thinking nothing of it, continued on. But suddenly, from amongst all the rocks and boulders around us, a brown… snow-man looking thing… stepped forward. Commandramon blinked. My digivice beeped, and so did Cole's. Looking at them, there was information on them again.

Leormon grinned… and that's what it was, too, a cat grin. "It's MudFrigimon!!! He's one of the good guys!"

I was about to believe him, too, when MudFrigimon attacked us… "Heavy Punch!" He just barely missed Cole.

Leormon growled… or tried to. "Leormon, digivolve to… Leormon! Wait, what?"

And that was it… we were finished… until Cole's digivice glowed when MudFrigimon attacked Commandramon.

Commandramon glowed. "Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!" To attempt to describe Sealsdramon would be an affront to nature… You'd simply have to see him for yourself. What I can say is that he was tall, thin, vaguely humanoid in shape, and he was covered in what looked like armor, with one of his eyes having some kind of red lens or something over it. It was over in a flash… I only ever remember hearing "Death Behind!!!" and then… suddenly, the black gear in MudFrigimon's back shattered.

MudFrigimon couldn't stop thanking us for freeing him from Devimon's control. In fact, it got annoying. After about half an hour of it, I had to smack Cole to keep him from outright telling the digimon to go away. But eventually, MudFrigimon realized we were trying to leave, and let us go. It was my turn to mutter dully… "Well, _that_ was interesting…"

We had decided it best _not_ to scale Infinity Mountain, as the digimon named it, seeing as how that was where we were more likely to be attacked. Or at least, that's what _we_ thought. The world around us, however, had decided we were going to be attacked no matter what we did. Unfortunately for us, our next opponent was a lot stronger than we had hoped.

We hadn't eaten in a while, and neither had the digimon. We were tired, and it was close to dark. We were just exhausted, and so were our digimon. Once again, our digivices had started to glow. We were starting to think of this as having some sort of significance.

He had come flying at us, a dark man with dark wings and horns. With fear in their eyes, both Leormon and Commandramon exclaimed, "That's Devimon!!!"

We pulled out our digivices. Both digimon glowed brightly.

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

Devimon came at us, and both digimon leaped at him.

"Thunder of Kings!!!"

"Death Behind!!!"

But Devimon seemed unfazed. He extended his claws out towards the two, and Cole and I averted our gaze. "Touch of Evil!!!"

There was a whooshing sound, and then we looked; both digimon, yet again aglow, were breaking up into pieces and drifting away. Liamon roared at me. "Find us again, in Primary Village!!! We'll be wait-" and he was gone. Devimon turned to look at us, and Cole put his arms up to cover his head. The screen of his digivice created a bright light, and Devimon cried out and backed up several feet. Cole blinked and looked at his digivice in wonder, but I grabbed his arm and dragged him away. We made a run for it… we were sitting ducks without those two digimon, I hated to say it. We had to find Primary Village, wherever that was…

We'd been stumbling around for a couple of days, scaring off small creatures that followed us around. We finally found one that looked something like a rabbit, but its legs were much thicker, and its stance was more like a turtle. It was red, with blue or purple stripes on it, and 9 tails. It also had a black gear in its back. We were _not_ prepared for this…

"Super Thunder Strike!!!" Bolts of lightning shot from his tail. I pushed Cole to the side and I dove to the other side.

Cole seemed to have an idea. "Hey! The digivice repelled that Devimon guy, what do you think it'll do to this guy?"

I shrugged. It was worth a try… I pulled out the digivice and held it out towards the digimon. There was a light from the screen of the digivice, and the black gear shattered. The digimon looked at the digivice in reverence.

"You're… Digidestined…"

"What's a Digidestined? And who are you?"

"I'm Elecmon, the keeper of Primary Village… and the Digidestined are humans who were brought here to save the Digital World; to stop the evil that plagues it."

My eyes widened. "We're trying to get to Primary Village!!!"

But Cole only had one thing in mind: "Digidestined? Us?"


	2. We're Not Alone?

We're Not Alone?

Andrew and I walked with Elecmon towards Primary Village. It wasn't far.

"So Devimon got your partners? What kind of digimon were they?"

"Well, their names were Leormon and Commandramon…" Cole blurted out.

"A Leormon and a Commandramon, huh? I got a Popomon and a Bombmon at the same time not too long ago…" Andrew and I looked at each other blankly.

"There's more than one?!" I exclaimed.

Elecmon nodded fiercely. Suddenly, Elecmon froze, and his fur stood on end. He looked scared. "Did you say Leormon and Commandramon?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"And you said they'd digivolved?"

Again, we nodded. "Yeah. Into Liamon and Sealsdramon."

Elecmon's eyes widened. "Liamon? He's a powerful digimon!! How did Devimon defeat him?"

Andrew sighed. "I don't know. We were tired and hungry… he might have been weakened by that."

"But I still don't get why a Digidestined would be partnered with a Commandramon…" He led us to two cradles. "That should be them."

One looked like a bomb with three eyes and pointy ears. "That's Bombmon."

I grinned. "Well, he didn't get his name for no reason."

The other one looked like a dandelion with pure red eyes. It was creepy. "That's Popomon."

Andrew looked at Elecmon. "Which one's which?"

"Bombmon will digivolve into Missimon, who will-"

I stopped him as he scooped up Bombmon. "-digivolve into Commandramon."

At the same time, Andrew picked up Popomon. "That means this little guy will become Frimon, and then digivolve into Leormon."

Elecmon stared at us in amazement. "How long did you say you've been here?"

Andrew blinked, looking over at me. "Few days?'

I shrugged. "Something like that."

Elecmon was overcome with wonder. "It's amazing how quickly you've come to understand this world."

I blinked. "Who said we understood it? Besides, we're smart kids, even though we're young."

Andrew nodded. Poor Andrew… he had a broken family; he'd had to grow up faster than other kids his age. He was a lot smarter, too, which made him that much worse off. I was his only friend, as far as I knew.

We waved goodbye to Elecmon and set out with our Baby level digimon. It was getting dark, but we decided to put some distance between us and Primary Village. We both knew we wouldn't be able to sleep if we had to deal with crying babies. As we traveled through the night, the ground began to rumble. The island broke into pieces, and they were rapidly moving away from each other.

Andrew sighed in exasperation. "Great. Now what do we do?"

I shook my head. We have to think this through. We have no defense, no idea where we are, and we're floating away from our only landmark." I pointed to Infinity Mountain.

"Isn't it my job to say that?"

"Isn't it my job to say 'now what?'"

"Good point."

We sighed simultaneously. Andrew looked at me. "Think we should get back to Infinity Mountain?"

"Without our digimon able to protect us?"

"By the time we get there, they should be able to."

"True, but what about in the meantime?"

"We have the digivices."

"Oh, yeah!!!"

"You up for it?"

"Let's do it!"

So we started to search our little section of island. It was pointless, really, there was nothing there, and it wasted a lot of time.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar growling. Turning around, I saw a familiar face. It was Dobermon. "Hey! I remember you. We saved you from a black gear."

Dobermon sniffed at us. "Yes, I remember that. What happened to your digimon friends?"

Andrew stepped in. "Devimon got them."

"Someone needs to teach him a lesson."

"We want to, but we need to get back to where he is, and we think we're going to try Infinity Mountain."

"Infinity Mountain is dangerous, especially without your digimon to protect you."

"We don't have much choice, and this island is carrying us further and further away."

"Then allow me to protect you, as a thank you for freeing me before."

"That would be great!! Now, how do we get back to Infinity Mountain?"

Dobermon smiled; I swear, it was a dog smile. "We build a raft."

He used his special attack to cut down trees, and Cole and I tied them together to build a raft. After setting it in the water and getting on with Popomon and Bombmon, Dobermon jumped on, turned to face the island, and opened his mouth. "Grau Realm!!"

The blast sent the raft speeding forward towards what remained intact of File Island, and, ultimately, Infinity Mountain. As we sped forward, Andrew turned to Dobermon. "If Devimon or one of his goons shows up, and you can't take them, don't try. Our digivices can repel them. Don't take on what you can't handle and end up killing yourself."

Dobermon sighed and nodded. "Alright." Apparently he didn't like the idea of a fight he couldn't handle.

We arrived on the island much later, and Andrew and I had gone to sleep for most of the trip. Landing, we scavenged for food. There wasn't much to be found, but Dobermon caught us some fish and we were able to find some nuts and berries. After eating and feeding our digimon, the two Baby level digimon glowed.

"Bombmon, digivolve to… Missimon!!!"

"Popomon, digivolve to… Frimon!!!"

Missimon began to fly through the air, and Frimon began to bounce against Andrew's leg, propelled by its tail. "Yay!!! It won't be long before we digivolve again!!!"

I blinked. "Is digivolution always this easy?"

All three digimon looked at me. "No."

Missimon spoke in a hypothetical way. "I suppose that your digivices, mixed with your need for us to digivolve could have helped us digivolve early. But I don't know."

Andrew sighed. "Let's get moving." And so we set out for Infinity Mountain.

It was slow going. Eventually, we got to the mountain, and a battle was already raging between Devimon and other digimon. It was amazing. But the other digimon were losing.

The other digimon had people with them. "Wow! There's more Digidestined?" I said. As we watched, another digimon digivolved.

"Patamon, digivolve to… Angemon!!!"

There was an exchange of dialogue between Angemon and Devimon, but I didn't hear it because Dobermon started talking. "Angel versus devil… it makes sense…" Suddenly all the other kids' digivices started to glow and beams streamed from them to Angemon, their partners dedigivolving in the process. I held up my digivice; it did the same thing. Andrew's, on his belt, did too.

This time I didn't hear the conversation because I was talking. "I can't believe it… He's drawing on the power of the digivices to call up the power to defeat him. It's just like an angel would call upon the power of God."

Andrew was speechless this whole time. I blinked at him. "Oh yeah, that's right, you're not exactly a church-goer, huh?"

Angemon released a blast from his fist that went straight through Devimon, and they were both being deleted before our eyes.

The boy who'd had the Patamon was crying. Angemon comforted him. "I'll come back, T.K., if you want me to."

Some of Angemon's feathers from his wings fell together and formed a digiegg. I grinned. "He's going through what we're going through.

Finally, Andrew spoke. "We're not alone?"


	3. The Search Begins

The Search Begins

Devimon had been defeated by a group of other kids, and Cole seemed excited. I, however, was wondering where this group of other kids and their digimon had come from, and, now, where they had gone. Cole and I decided to go after them, but in order to do so, we had to find them. We decided to start with where we'd last seen them. To do that, we had to climb the mountain.

Dobermon helped us get up the mountain a lot easier than it would've been without him. As we rose higher, we noticed the island was coming back together. Cole seemed sad.

"What's wrong, Cole?"

"Oh, I was just thinking, now that the island is fixing itself, when it hits our raft, our raft is toast."

Dobermon looked at us funny. 'What's toast?"

I shook my head, laughing. "It's a a food that is burnt on purpose."

"Oh."

We continued up to the point where they were when they'd fought Devimon. There, on the ground, was some weird-looking pad. A pillar of light like a holographic projection spilled from it. "Ah, hello. I've heard so much about you."

Cole screams and jumped backwards, landing on his butt and panting heavily. "What the-" he cursed.

I remained calm, mostly. "Who are you?"

The man standing inside the pillar of light said, "I am Gennai. You are the Digidestined, right? I've heard a lot about you."

"Do you know why we're here?"

"You are here to defend this world."

"Besides that."

"No."

"Do you know who brought us here?"

"No."

"Do you know who those other kids were?"

"More Digidestined."

"More?"

"You are the 9th and 10th Digidestined children."

"There were 7 in that group."

Cole looked at me funny. "So that's what you were doing when you weren't talking… you were counting."

"Haha, very funny."

Gennai continued. "Yes, there is an 8th child in their group, that they must find… but all in good time. They will be going to the continent of Server and searching for the tags and crests. You, too, need to search for your tags and crests. But Devimon did not get your tags and hide them, as he did with theirs. Yours are hidden elsewhere. But your crests are also hidden on the continent of Server."

"Why do we want these tags and crests? Sounds like a lot of trouble to me."

"They will allow your digimon to digivolve to the next level."

Cole stood up finally. "Really? That could come in handy."

"And with the dangers you face ahead, you'll need it."

"Alright, so we'll just go hitch a ride with the other kids." I turned to go.

'No!!!"

"Why not?"

"Their path is different from yours, at least for now. Let it remain that way. Trust me. Come and see me when you have found your tags and crests."

"What do they look like?"

:"Oh, good point…" The image changed momentarily to an image of a yellow, oddly-shaped dog tag-looking object. The center section was clear. "These are the tags. You will know the crests when you see them." The image shifted back to show the old man.

"Do you at least know where the tags and crests are?"

"The tags are guarded by one who would recognize your digivice as a sign of entrance, somewhere in the southern part of the continent of Server. As for the crests, they are hidden, and your tags will guide you to them."

"And how do you expect us to find you?"

"Hmmm… that's a good question… the last group had a computer…"

I looked at Cole, and he looked at me. "We don't have anything like that…"

Cole blinked. "The digivices are electronic devices, right? Couldn't they act as a radar or something, too? Couldn't you load a radar or a map or both into them?"

Gennai considered this very carefully. "I suppose it's possible…"

I stared. Cole _would_ have an idea like that. "You just wanna make these things cooler."

Cole glared. "So?"

Gennai nodded. "You already have one. However, your radar only detects digivice signals. Your digivice will also glow when danger is near. When you are near the guardian of your tags, they will glow also. I must be going now."

I blinked. "Oh, thanks, that's a lot of help…" But he was gone.

Cole looked at me. "Whaddaya think?"

"I think he's a few fries short of a happy meal. But as for what we should do about it? I dunno… He may be right. And if he is, we don't want to take that chance."

"But do we want to take the chance he's wrong? Safety in numbers."

"We've done good this far on our own… I think we can manage."

"Alright… Let's do it, then. Let's go to... Server, he said?"

"Yeah."

Dobermon looked at us and grinned. "You're going to need a ride, a boat or something. Maybe I can get some digimon to help us make a boat."

So, while Dobermon went off, we sat a ways away from the other kids and what they were doing, making sure that they didn't see us. When they left, we made sure so see which direction they set out in. When Dobermon returned, he had a small army of digimon with him. All the ones we'd helped were in there, plus a couple of others. Introduced to us were Leomon, Centarumon, Unimon, and Frigimon, MudFrigimon's cousin. In next to no time, we had a raft. It was a small raft, but it was all we needed. I took a quick liking to Leomon. He and Leormon were cousins, he said. Leomon told me, before we left, that if Cole and I ever needed anything else, not to hesitate to ask. It was "the least he could do for the Digidestined children."

As we set off across the ocean, we laid back. We'd brought food, enough for a week or two, but somehow we didn't think that would be enough. We drifted across the ocean lazily. When our digimon were hungry, we let them eat. I didn't get hungry often, and Cole seemed too distant to want to eat all that often, so food wasn't as much of a problem as we thought it would be. By the time we hit land, both digimon had digivolved back to their Rookie forms, and we were out of food. Now I was hungry.

We started the search for food, Leormon eventually catching some fish. Commandramon had gone hunting for other things to eat, but didn't find a whole lot. We had enough fish to go around, though, so we weren't too worried about it.

After we'd eaten, we checked our digivices to see that radar. Surprisingly, it wasn't there. "That lying rat!" Cole exclaimed.

I sighed. :This thing has buttons, Cole…"

"Oh, right…"

I started to push buttons, remembering what happened when I pushed what buttons. Not a lot happened with the first button… just a clock. The second one gave me a glowing screen. The other button (there were only three), called up a blank screen with 2 red dots, both in the center. I blinked. "They're right in the middle. These must be us… They have to be the digivices... Move that way for a moment." I pointed. Cole started to move. As one of the dots moved, I grinned. "The dot in the center is my digivice!!!"

Grinning from ear to ear, we looked around. "Well, we're here, on Server, where we're supposed to find the tags and crests," I said.

"Yeah. Now we just have to find them… The search begins."


	4. A New Enemy

A New Enemy

We were about to set out on our adventure on Server. Just then, the screens on our digivices glowed. I sighed. "Looks like we're getting another heaping helping of trouble… Can they hold the gravy this time?"

It was so well-timed that Andrew busted out laughing. "I hope so, Cole, because I'm not a fan of it either." I could tell that he couldn't help but chuckle as he spoke. Suddenly, what appeared to be a ghost (that is, a Halloween-type ghost, someone with a sheet thrown over them, but there was no one under it) with a witch's hat on appeared out of nowhere. In fact, several of them appeared. Our digivices beeped at us, and we looked down.

"Soulmon?"

I sighed. "They really need to get a new naming system… every digimon has the same last name. I can't tell which mon is my mon and which mon is your mon. Hey, Andrew? I think you're the mon!"

Sighing, Andrew shook his head and looked away. "Ready, Leormon?"

"You bet!!!'

The Soulmon started to attack. "Necro Magic!!!"

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

Liamon ran towards the ghosts. "Thunder of Kings!!!" Electricity leapt off his mane.

Sealsdramon got behind them, as usual. "Death Behind."

As we watched, the Soulmon slowly disappeared.

After a few minutes, when they had dedigivolved, we started walking again, only to see something that looked very familiar. It looked like that thing we'd seen, Patamon, that had digivolved to Angemon, but it was purplish in color.

I looked at it funny. "You're… Patamon, right?"

He looked insulted. "No!! Patamon's my cousin. I'm Tsukaimon. You're new around here, aren't you?"

We nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, you should know, everyone listens to the great Persiamon. Her advice is taken by everyone!!! You should see her!"

I could see a smile forming on Tsukaimon's face. "Thanks, but I'll take my chances. We have more important tasks." Andrew was the one talking.

"There is nothing more important than a conversation with Persiamon."

I turned to him. "If she gives advice, maybe she can tell us where the tags are."

Andrew turned to me. I'd always known he was smarter than me, but I was a bit older, by about 6 months or so. So right now, while I was 10, he was only 9. Still, he didn't seem to like the idea. "With that evil grin? No thanks."

I was shocked. "Dude, what's with you?"

"Maybe you're a little behind? I'm trapped in a new, Digital World, I'm stuck eating berries and dry leaves, I'm about to trek across a continent searching for tags and crests, and I'm a little ticked off that I'm constantly under attack. Not to mention I have to help save this world. Add in a flying rat, and I'm just a little exasperated, Cole. You coming or not… dude?"

I shook my head. "No… I'm going to meet Persiamon."

"Suit yourself. I'll talk to you when you come to your senses. You can find me with your digivice, I'm sure." And with that, Andrew and Leormon walked away. Tsukaimon started to fly off to the north, and Commandramon and I followed him.

"This should help us out…"

We arrived at a palace of sorts. It was Egyptian in style. Tsukaimon led us in, and all around us were monkey and turtle digimon. Commandramon recognized them.

"The monkeys are Koemon, and the turtles are Kamemon."

I nodded. "Nice palace."

Tsukaimon led us to a throne, and on the throne sat a person that looked like a cat. Or was it a cat that looked like a person? Well, it was something like that. She had two tails, both had three golden rings on them, and very long hair. It was a sight to see, that's for sure, and very hard to describe.

"What advice do you seek?"

I cleared my throat. "We're looking for the tags and crests."

"You must be the Digidestined then…"

"That's what I keep getting told."

"Let me see your device…" She pointed to my digivice, which rested on my belt. I noticed it was glowing, but I didn't think anything of it. "…it may help me to divine where the tags are…"

I took the digivice from my belt and tossed it to her. She caught it. Almost immediately, a huge, black tyrannosaurus came crashing through the over-sized doors and opened its mouth. "Fire Blast!!!" A huge ball of fire shot forward. Commandramon pushed me to the side, just in time.

I turned to him. "Digivolve!"

"I'm trying!!!"

Persiamon laughed. "He can't!!! Not while I have your digivice!!!"

I glared at her. "You tricked me!!!"

"Yes, I did, and it worked quite well."

Just then, a familiar roar reverberated through the hall. "Thunder of Kings!!!"

Andrew rode in on Liamon's back as the tyrannosaur fell. "That takes care of DarkTyrannomon. Now for Persiamon!"

Liamon skidded to a halt next to me. "Thunder of Kings!!!"

Persiamon knocked the bolts of lightning emanating from Liamon's mane aside like they were toothpicks. Andrew jumped off as Liamon leapt forward. "Critical Strike!!!" This time Persiamon bodily threw Liamon across the room, and he dedigivolved.

Andrew ran to his partner. "LEORMON!!!"

Commandramon and I ran over, and we glared at Persiamon. She grinned. "You can't beat me."

Andrew stood. "I'm not so sure. He ran up, his digivice held up in front of him, and held it up to her face. It emitted the same bright light it had emitted with Devimon. It didn't drive her away, but she dropped my digivice. Andrew kicked it over to me and we ran like we'd never run before, a horde of Koemon and Kamemon following us.

Persiamon's voice followed us. "FIND THEM!!! DESTROY THEM!!!"

Andrew grinned. "I hate to say I told you so, but…"

I glared at him. "Liar."

"I told you so."

"If you really hated to say it, you wouldn't say it."

"Yeah, I know. Listen, I found a temple-looking place."

"Yeah, and?"

"There was a strange symbol carved into the outside."

"Yeah, and?"

"It looked like the digivices!!!"

"Yeah, and?"

"I think it's where the tags are!!!"

"Yeah, and?"

"Are you going to say anything beside that?"

"Yeah, and?"

"You're hopeless…"

"Yeah, and?"

I did it to drive him crazy. It worked. He shut up, and just led the way to a stone ruin. We walked through the entrance into a small room, where an angel-like creature stood. He reminded me of that Angemon character, except, instead of six wings, he had two, and instead of blue clothes, he had red clothes. I blinked at him. "You remind me of Angemon."

"I am a cousin of Angemon's."

"Last time I met a cousin of a good guy, he turned out to be a bad guy…"

Andrew hit me in the stomach. "Well, if you'd learn to trust me and trust your digivice, you'd be better off."

The angel looked intrigued. "Did you say digivice?"

We nodded. Andrew seemed to have an idea. "Gennai said that the guardian of the tags would recognize the digivices…" Andrew held up his digivice.

The angel bowed. "My name is Piddomon. I am the guardian of the tags that you seek."

"Great!!! Can we get them?"

Piddomon nodded, and led the way down a passage to our right. There, at the end of the hall, was a stone chest. "It will only open for your digivices."

Andrew and I held out our digivices, and there was a sound akin to a click, or maybe it was a thud. Whatever it was, it was loud. Andrew tried to open the chest, but couldn't. I tried to help him, but failed. Finally, Piddomon opened it. Andrew and I grabbed the two crests, and put them around our necks. "Wow… That wasn't so hard. But now we have a new enemy…"


	5. Crest of Truth

The Crest of Truth

It was dark out, a week and a half or so later. Cole, Commandramon, and Leormon were sleeping. I was alone, taking watch. It was a creepy night. I was patrolling the edges of our… camp, if you could call it that… when I could hear the faint sounds of an eerie whistling. Not wanting to take any chances, I woke up the others. As we sat there, listening, we began to hear the sounds of large footsteps falling.

I don't know about Cole's, but my digivice was glowing. A sure sign of danger, I knew, by this point. Suddenly, DarkTyrannomon came lumbering into camp.

"DarkTyrannomon again?" I cried out.

Leormon and Commandramon glowed.

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

Liamon caught the dinosaur's attention, while Sealsdramon got behind him.

"Thunder of Kings!!!"

"Death Behind!!!"

It was a quick fight. Too quick. I turned around, looking… Then I saw her. Persiamon. "Cole, run!!!"

An army of Koemon and Kamemon surrounded the clearing we were in. There was no escape. I quickly leapt onto Liamon's back, and Liamon jumped over to Cole, who I immediately pulled up beside me. As Commandramon, Cole's partner digimon would be too bulky to fit on Liamon's back, but as Sealsdramon, he would fit, if be a bit big. He got on behind Cole, overshadowing both me and Cole. Liamon ran forward. "Thunder of Kings!!!" It cleared a small path and we took that path as far as we could. Finally, Liamon leapt over a crowd of digimon and landed on a group of Kamemons' heads. It was an escape I never _dreamed_ possible…

Yeah, right.

I awoke in a cold sweat. Sitting straight up, Cole looked at me funny, and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. From the look of the stick in Cole's hand, it appeared I had good reason to have such a sharp pain.

"You were yelling and tossing and turning in your sleep, dude…"

"So you poke me with a stick?"

"Sorry, I couldn't get you to wake up any other way!!!"

"Geez… I think I'd rather have Leormon turn my head into a scratching post…" I rubbed my shoulder gently.

"What were you dreaming about?"

"It was an attack by Persiamon… she sent in DarkTyrannomon again…"

Leormon sighed. "I don't think she'd use a digimon we'd already defeated to try and get us again."

"Unless she'd made it stronger…"

I fell back to the ground, as I would've done if I was on a regular bed. Bad move. I hit my head on a rock. I shot back up into a sitting position. "OW!!!" I swore violently.

Cole laughed loudly. "Don't do that!! It hurts."

"Yeah, I noticed. Thanks for your professional opinion, wise guy."

Cole smiled cheerfully. "You're welcome!!!"

I was never able to understand how he was able to be so sarcastic like that. I probably never will. I was afraid that Fugamon would be along any minute, so I stood. "Let's get moving. I want to find those crests." It was, as I could tell, almost dawn anyways.

The four of us set out, trying to steer clear of anywhere that Persiamon might have an influence. I was trying to figure out if the stress of doing this was finally getting to me, or if this was actually going to happen. Cole and I kept our tags out, in case they were ready to lead us to where our crests were.

Suddenly, a brown digimon attacked us, he was carrying a bone club. He just barely missed Leormon. My digivice identified him as Fugamon, a relative of Ogremon. He was swinging his club around quite forcefully. As my digivice glowed, so did Leormon.

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

While Liamon fought against Fugamon, I lost my concentration, because my tag started to glow white. It lifted into the air in a westerly direction, and I followed it, running as fast as I could. I was excited. As I headed into the forest, I found an old abandoned mine. The tag led me into the mine. Eventually, the tag pointed to the wall. I began digging away at the dirt, finally hitting solid stone. By that time, Cole and the digimon had arrived.

"Hey, there you are, Andrew! We've been looking all over for you!!!"

"I went off to find my crest! It's right here, buried under all this dirt!"

So Cole, Leormon, and Commandramon helped me chip away at the dirt covering the stone. Before we could accomplish much, however, Persiamon appeared. I looked at Leormon. "Can you digivolve?"

He shook his head. "No… I'm out of energy…"

Cole turned to Commandramon. "It's your turn then."

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

As Sealsdramon did his best to hold Persiamon off, we cleared away the dirt from the stone surface. It was mostly smooth, with an odd symbol in the middle. As I watched, my tag floated into the air again, and the section of stone glowed the same color white my tag was glowing. Cole stared in amazement. The stone began to shrink and soon became a small tablet, which neatly inserted itself into the tag. I goggled at it. It was mind-boggling.

Behind the crest was another passage, and Cole was practically dragging me down the passageway now. After a moment, he spoke. "I wonder what the symbol means."

"The symbol identifies the crest from the other crests, I'm sure. Each crest must represent something unique to that person, probably a personality trait or a unique skill…"

"There you go, being smart again… this is why you don't have any friends… you spend too much time with the books."

"Who cares about friends? I've got you for a friend, that's all I need."

I hadn't meant it in a mushy way, but it had come out in a way that almost made you go, "Awwww…" For a moment, I thought Cole was going to hug me. Then, suddenly, Commandramon was running towards us.

"Time to put our rear ends into high gear, dude."

"I couldn't agree more, Cole."

We ran. We ran like school just got out. As we got away, I heard Persiamon cursing.

"Curse those kids… they got the Crest of Truth…"

I looked down at my crest. "Hmmm… the Crest of Truth…"


	6. The Second Crest

The Second Crest

It was a couple weeks later. The four of us had been on the run from Persiamon for some time now. Digimon attacked, left and right, and Persiamon showed up constantly, chasing us down. Why evil digimon got it in their heads they wanted to destroy us was entirely beyond me.

Andrew and I were getting tired of the constant chase. And we were no closer to finding my crest. Days had passed as we had searched. Now, we were beginning to think we were in the wrong place. Maybe we were even on the wrong continent.

"Gennai swore up and down that the crests were on this continent." I complained heavily.

"Tell him that when you see him."

"We're never going to see him again, at this rate."

Just as we were about to give up hope, I heard Gennai's voice behind us.

"Giving up so soon?"

I turned around, ready to punch him, but Andrew held me back. "He's just a hologram, remember?"

"I would've thought you would be more interested in seeing your digimon digivolve, Cole."

"I don't recall giving you our names." I was a little ticked off at the time.

"You didn't have to."

"I see."

Andrew sighed. "Do you know where the other crest is?"

"Not a clue."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm here to warn you. Persiamon is on your trail. She won't stop until you're eliminated. Prophecy foretold that she would be stopped by two boys and their digimon, a prophecy of the Digidestined."

"Dude… We're no match for her!!!"

"Not right now, you're not. But with the crests, you're more than a match for her."

Andrew looked down at his crest in amazement.

"Why can't Leormon digivolve past Liamon right now?"

"Because it takes teamwork, not just the crests. Neither one of you can use the crest without the other. That's why you can't give up!!!"

Andrew had a glimmer in his eye. I knew that look; it was his mischievous look. He rarely ever had that look. When he did, it was rare, and you _never_ knew what he was up to.

"You got it, Gennai."

Gennai disappeared, and I looked at Andrew like he was insane. "Are you crazy? I thought we didn't trust this guy!!!"

"Well, he's the only one we _can_ trust right now. We have to keep going, to find your crest, at least for now. Then we can digivolve our digimon to the next level and defeat Persiamon. Maybe then we can go home…"

Home. The word sank into me like a knife. I nodded. "If it'll get us home, I'll do it."

We set off into a desert. It was blazing hot. As we walked, Leormon's ears twitched. "Andrew, I hear something." We all turned around. Persiamon's army was behind us, led by a minotaur. The digivice beeped at me, displaying information on it.

"Minotarumon, eh? Says here he's a Champion level digimon."

As I looked at my digivice and the information it displayed, Andrew was staring at my tag. I looked at it, too. It was glowing, a silvery color. Andrew nodded. "Go find it. I'll take care of this guy.

Leormon glowed. "Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

As Liamon took care of Minotarumon, I ran off, Commandramon following me, in the direction that my tag seemed to lead. As I faced a certain direction, the tag would glow brighter, and I would go in that direction. As I ran, it would keep glowing brighter and brighter until finally, I was cut off by another Minotarumon.

I turned to Commandramon. "Ready?"

"Yep." Commandramon glowed brightly. "Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

Minotarumon punched the ground with his left arm, the metal… device… that served as his hand causing some sort of earthquake.

Sealsdramon attacked Minotarumon, allowing me to run around him, if a bit unsteadily, but I was only stopped again by a bunch of Koemon.

"Not so fast, you human brat."

Suddenly, Liamon ran into the scene, Andrew astride his back, and Andrew pulled me up. "Need a lift?"

I smiled. It was a running joke we'd had. When I was walking home from school, his mom would stop the car to pick me up, and Andrew would ask if I needed a lift.

"It might help!"

Liamon ran straight for the Koemon group. "Thunder of Kings!!!"

We found another roadblock, a group of Kamemon. Liamon leapt over their heads, and soon they were chasing us. Sealsdramon started to attack them while we continued to run. I was getting fed up with this. Andrew looked back at me.

"We're going the right way, right?"

I nodded. "Right."

He nodded back. "Good."

Suddenly, up ahead, I saw Persiamon herself.

"Oh, great. Now what?"

Andrew grinned. "We've been practicing."

"Practicing what?"

Liamon roared, dodging to the right and jumping up, bouncing off a tree and jumping higher, sailing over Persiamon's head and continuing past her.

Andrew grinned. "That. We figured it may come in handy."

"You could've told me!!! I almost fell off!!!"

"If I'd told you, she would've heard, and might've found a way to stop us."

Now the army of digimon was catching up to us, and Sealsdramon was right behind us. Persiamon did not look pleased. Andrew looked at me. "You keep going, I'll take care of fur ball."

"But…"

"GO!!!"

Sighing, I jumped off, and started running again. "I hope he knows what he's doing. If he gets killed, I'll never talk to him again, the stubborn brat."

After a moment's thought, I felt bad. "Poor guy, he's got it bad… his family's all screwed up. I mean, his dad's gone and he's not sure if he's dead or alive, his mom, while a nice and sweet lady, is a bit of a ditz, and his aunt and uncle are so crazy they'd probably believe in digimon and call them a conspiracy theory… And then his cousins…"

I ended up in a small abandoned woodshed. There, on the inside wall, was another of the strange symbols, much like the one Andrew had found. Before my eyes, the section of wall glowed and shrunk, forming a small tablet and sliding itself into the slot in my tag. It was a grayish-silvery color.

"Wow… the second crest…"


	7. Catfight

Catfight

It was another day on the run from Persiamon. Cole was ranting about how we should be standing and fighting. Now that we had both crests, we could beat her, was his argument.

"We can win, now, Andrew!!! We have both crests! She's no match for us anymore!!!"

"Cool off, Cole. We're nothing to her until we know how to use the crests."

"The same way we use the digivices. It happens automatically."

"NO, COLE!!!! IT DOESN'T!!!" I turned to face him, yelling at the top of my lungs. "DON'T YOU GET IT? THEY DIGIVOLVE TO HELP US, WHEN WE'RE IN TROUBLE. THEY CAN'T JUST DO IT ON THEIR OWN!!!! WE CAN'T MAKE THEM DIGIVOLVE BY FORCE OF WILL!!!"

Cole looked horrified. I'd never yelled in front of him before. "You… don't know… how they work… then?"

I shook my head. "No," I lied. I had a vague idea, but I wasn't ready to tell Cole. I didn't want to face Persiamon. I didn't feel like it. It was… it was too much. I didn't want to think about it. Besides, I wasn't sure if I was right, and based on what I knew, I didn't know how to get them to do it. It was only a shot in the dark. I sighed. "Until we know how to use them, we can't keep fighting. Got it?"

Cole shut his mouth and nodded. "Got it."

He was older than me, but he knew when the facts were stacked against him. And he knew that that was about 90% of the time.

I sighed and looked down at my crest. _Crest of truth? That's a trait that defines me? Yeah, right. I'm sitting here lying to my best friend to avoid having to fight a cat creature in some weird, other world. If _truth_ was a trait that defined me, I would've told him, flat out, what I thought and suspected. But I didn't. Because I'm not ready to face Persiamon… not yet._

We were coming up to a lake. As we neared the water's edge, I grinned. Light glistened off the surface of the lake, and the water was clean and clear. I bent over and took a quick sniff of the air over the water. There was a fresh scent there. "Smells good. Looks good."

Cole and I had been camping before, so we had learned to check and see if the water was good before drinking it. I cupped my hands together and took a drink of the water, as did Cole. It was crisp, clean, cool, mountain spring water. After the first taste, we nodded at each other. It was definitely safe to drink. We drank heavily from the lake, finally feeling better, and sat down on the shore, kicked off our shoes and socks, and soaked our feet in the water.

"Oh, this feels good…" Cole said dreamily.

"You don't have to tell _me_ twice."

After we'd had a nice bath, we started to move on. After a little ways, there was a buzzing sound, and we turned to look behind us. Several bee-like creatures were coming towards us, and our digivices beeped at the same time. But we didn't pull them out. Leormon started talking. "Flymon!!! That's one mean bug. We really don't want to be on the other end of that stinger."

Cole growled in frustration, and I could almost hear him whimper, although he probably didn't. He swore. "What have I _always_ said about camping?"

"That it would be perfect if you didn't have to worry about the bugs," I replied. I sighed. He'd made that statement too many times when we were younger.

Cole looked at me. "So, got any bug spray?"

I looked at him with a cold glare. "Spare me the sarcasm, would you?"

Cole sighed. He liked to have fun. I didn't like to deal with it, though, and he knew it. Cole turned to Commandramon. "Let's squash these guys like the bugs they are!" Commandramon nodded, tossing his M16 aside.

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!" Sealsdramon started to fight the Flymon, and Leormon looked at me. I was about to nod at him when the digivice in my pocket beeped again. I pulled it out. The screen was glowing.

"Cole… I think it's time to get out of here. Forget your bug aggression, let's get going!"

Cole looked confused. "What? Why?"

I looked at him. "I just have a really bad feeling. These are probably Per-"

Persiamon came into sight just around a tree. "Oh, there you are. Finally, after all this time, I have you."

I glared at her. "Speak of the devil and she shall appear."

Persiamon made a noise akin to purring. "Ouch… that's a little harsh, don't you think?"

I shook my head. "No, not really. Now, if you'd kindly excuse me, I'd like to kick your ass."

"Such harsh words coming from such a young boy… I would hate to see-"

I cut her off. "Leormon? Let's go."

Leormon was about to digivolve when she spoke again. "Oh, you needn't bother with that. It won't do you any good. Helter Skelter!" She did a funny little dance, and suddenly Sealsdramon dedigivolved. My eyes widened.

"If you could do that, how come this is the first time you've done it?"

"Because I've been toying with you. I could never have collected the tags and crests myself, you see."

I just looked at her. "Well, they're about to defeat you."

Cole looked over at me. "I thought you said they don't just work on command."

I shook my head. "They don't. But I have a confession to make. I do know how they work, or at least I think I do. They each embody a particular trait, and when you display that trait, they work."

Cole looked at me. "Would you quit with the smart stuff? So you lied. I'll get over it."

The crest that I wore around my neck glowed white. I looked at Leormon. "I don't care what she can do. Let's get her!!!"

Leormon grinned. "Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!" The crest glowed brighter, and the digivice shook in my hand, turning a glowing white as well. "Liamon, digivolve to… LoaderLeomon!!!" LoaderLeomon was like a robotic lion, with a spiked ball for a tail and a drill for a mane. He leapt on Persiamon as she started her dance again. "Boring Storm!!!" His mane turned, generating electricity, and he pinned her to the ground as it charged, then let it off at her. They watched as she started to dissolve into white squares.

Cole blinked. "Wow. That's what I call a catfight."


	8. Forgive and Forget Me Not

Forgive and Forget-Me-Not

Andrew was still excited about having defeated Persiamon, even though he was carrying Frimon in his arms as we walked. It was a pretty boring week. To entertain himself, Commandramon had started playing some game, I guess it was. He defended it as "being prepared for the next attack." All he was doing was being all "Mission Impossible," and hiding behind every tree, bush, and rock in sight, holding his rifle vertically, and peeking around the corner. Oh, and then he'd jump out and point his gun at a bird and scare it off.

It was a day like any other day stranded in a parallel world on a continent named after a type of computer: boring. The scenery had become forested again, and we were walking on a trail. We hadn't had to deal with anything eventful in the last couple of days, since we'd defeated Persiamon. It was blissfully quiet. In short, I shouldn't have believed I'd get out of having a problem that day even for a second. Not with my luck.

Given the chance to do it all over again, I'd have Commandramon shoot him out of the sky. It was a small ball that passed for a head, with wings and claws. It was a fairly bat-like digimon.

"You two look lost."

I glared at the bat. "Ah, get lost."

"Cole! Is that any way to treat someone you've just met?"

"Hey, don't you remember the _last_ time you got friendly with someone you'd 'just met'?"

Andrew humphed at me and turned back to the digimon. "My name is Andrew. This is my partner, Frimon. The rude one over there is Cole, and his partner, Commandramon."

The digimon seemed to nod, which I admit was funny to watch. "My name is DemiDevimon."

Finally the alarm went off in Andrew's head. "Wait. Demi_Devi_mon?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, I used to be a bad guy, but I've changed. Look at me, I'm a whole new mon. I'm on your side!"

Andrew seemed to actually consider this. I couldn't believe it! I stepped in with a slap in the face from the good guys. "Change? He can't change! It's in his programming!!"

Andrew turned on me. "That's assuming he _has _programming, and that his programming is fixed. We don't know how things work here!"

"Fine! Do the same thing you did with Persiamon! See if I care!"'

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Frimon leapt from Andrew's arms, coming over to me, and Andrew stormed off, DemiDevimon following.

Frimon seemed concerned. "Think we should follow him?" he asked slowly.

"You mean you really want to after that?" I wasn't exactly happy with Andrew at the moment.

"Of course. Don't you?"

"No, not really…" Sighing, I gave in. "Oh, alright." Hiding ourselves in the brush, we followed behind them.

DemiDevimon's voice was starting to annoy me. "Really? You beat Persiamon? I supposed I should be thanking you, then."

Andrew's voice was curious. "Oh? Why?"

"Well, you see, Persiamon was a bad cat. She mistreated everyone who didn't do what she wanted."

"That's terrible. You must've suffered a lot."

"Ah, don't worry about it."

The two stopped walking, and I could finally get a good look at them. There were just standing around, or in DemiDevimon's case, hovering, near a small building, talking. _Where did that building come from?_ But I didn't have time to figure it out, because DemiDevimon seemed to spot a batch of mushrooms across the clearing from them. The mushrooms were just a few feet in front of me.

"Hey, look, mushrooms! You hungry?"

Andrew grinned. "Starving."

Commandramon sniffed in the direction of the mushrooms. "Something doesn't smell quite right about those mushrooms…"

Frimon was immediately worried. "Andrew's in trouble!" The small digimon glowed, using his tail to propel himself from the bushes as Andrew started to grab a mushroom. "Frimon, digivolve to… Leormon!!!"

Andrew stepped back, a sneer on his face. He was obviously not happy about that. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Protecting you." Leormon growled at DemiDevimon.

"_You_ left _me_, remember?"

Leormon ignored the question and turned around, sniffing at the mushrooms. He turned around again, snarling at DemiDevimon. "These are the Mushrooms of Forgetfulness!" He tried to roar, but, as always, it came out as a strangled mewl. "He's trying to poison you, Andrew."

DemiDevimon was stuttering. "I-I-I-it's not true."

Andrew just seemed insulted. "Why would you stoop so low as to say he's trying to poison me?"

"See for yourself!" Leormon swiped a claw at one, tossing it into the air at DemiDevimon. "_You_ eat one!" It hit DemiDevimon square in the face. But he'd kept his mouth unusually tightly closed.

When DemiDevimon refused, Andrew seemed shocked, and hung his head. I came out of the bushes, Commandramon alongside me. Andrew sighed. "I'm sorry guys… Can you forgive me?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I forgive you. Just don't forget me, okay?"

He laughed. "Sure thing." Then he started staring at my chest. I looked down. My crest was glowing silver. "It started glowing when you said you forgive me… Forgiveness?"

I scrutinized Andrew for a moment. "You think that's the name of my crest?"

"Could be."

That was when we turned to look at DemiDevimon again. I heard him curse under his breath, and all we saw was his backside as he flew off.

"There's no way he could be working alone. He's got to be working for someone." Andrew seemed quite sure of his assessment.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one, he's the same level as our digimon. There's no way he could take us on himself. For two, he's an idiot. How could he come up with a plan like the Mushrooms of Forgetfulness? Obviously he wants our crests so we can't defeat whatever digimon he's working for…"

"What if he can digivolve, though?"

"Eh, I doubt it. If he could, he would've just now."

"Eh, you're probably right. Come on, we should keep moving…"


	9. A Crimson Power

A Crimson Power

Cole and I had, once again, gotten lost. This wasn't at all surprising, of course, seeing as how often we'd done that lately. It had been 4 or 5 days since we'd seen DemiDevimon, and we were glad to be rid of him. But he was the least of our worries. We were near a mountain spring when it happened. We were all hungry, and looking for food.

Commandramon and Cole had just returned with an armful of fruits and roots when there was a roar that shook the entire area, and a large tyrannosaur came into view. I looked nervously at Commandramon.

"He doesn't look too friendly."

"He shouldn't, that's MetalTyrannomon!"

"Can't you, like… talk to him? Dino to dino?"

"Somehow, I don't think he'd listen…" Cole said, slightly distraught.

I nodded my agreement. "Well, Leormon's not back yet… it's up to you guys!"

Cole turned to Commandramon. "Go for it!"

"Commandramon, digivolve to…" There was a dramatic pause, and then Commandramon fell over. "I can't do it, Cole. I haven't eaten in so long…"

I groaned. "Eat up. We'll try to hold him off with our digivices… Maybe it'll work." I held up my digivice, running towards the digimon as Commandramon started gulping down food. As the screen started to glow, MetalTyrannomon reared back its head in agony, but stood its ground. Soon, Cole's digivice began to glow, but Cole hadn't joined me…

"Commandramon, digivolve to… Sealsdramon!!!"

Sealsdramon began leaping up into the trees so he could fight. Meanwhile, Leormon arrived dragging more food. I turned to Leormon. "Eat up, buddy, we need you." He nodded and started eating.

There was a sharp cry of "Death Behind!!!" and MetalTyrannomon cried out in pain, swinging around to swat at what had hit him.

I ran over to Leormon and kneeled beside him. "Think you can digivolve?"

He nodded. "I think so."

"Then let's do it." I pointed my digivice towards him, and the screen glowed again. So did Leormon.

"Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!"

Liamon ran towards MetalTyrannomon. "Thunder of Kings!!!" The electric attack seemed to have little effect, though.

MetalTyrannomon seemed annoyed, though, because he pointed a hand at each digimon. "Giga Destroyer!!!" Liamon was hit by a large missile, and dedigivolved. "Nuclear Laser!!!" Sealsdramon was sent flying back into the clearing we were in, badly hurt. He looked up at Cole.

"I'm… sorry… I couldn't beat him… Cole…"

Cole kneeled down beside him, smiling sadly. "It's alright… I forgive you…"

At that moment, Cole's crest glowed silver, and Sealsdramon glowed. "Sealsdramon, digivolve to… Tankdramon."

The huge tank now filled the clearing. "You come in here and attack us? Well, I'll show you something… Striper Cannon!"

There was a large nuclear explosion, and the area was suddenly nothing but scorched earth where trees had been. MetalTyrannomon was turning into white squares of data and floating away.

With a sigh of relief, the dragon-like head protruding from the tank bowed to Cole, and then Tankdramon glowed and shrunk, and Missimon began zooming around the area. I ran over to Leormon. "You alright?"

He nodded. "I'm fine… But I'm hungry again…"

I laughed. "Come on, we'll eat some more. He only destroyed the immediate area, we can still find food, I'm sure."

As we were sitting down to eat, a vampire-looking digimon appeared flying above us. "You may be clever little kids, and you may have taken out MetalTyrannomon, but you're no match for me!!! Crimson Lightning!!!"

I pushed Cole out of the way of the red, whip-like lightning bolt, then turned to Leormon. "Leormon, digivolve to… Liamon!!!" Liamon leapt into the air, electricity charged in his mane. "Thunder of Kings!!!"

The digimon only laughed. "Your pathetic attacks are no match for me!!! Give me those crests! Now!!!"

"Never!!!" I cried. "Now, Liamon!!!" My crest glowed white.

Liamon nodded. "Liamon, digivolve to… LoaderLeomon!!!"

"I see you know how to use your crests… no matter! You will never defeat me!" The digimon was a little arrogant, I thought.

"Boring Storm!!!"

This time, the digimon we faced seemed fazed. "I'll be back…"

LoaderLeomon waited until the digimon was gone before he dedigivolved, turning back into Frimon.

I groaned. "Great, now we're defenseless."

Cole winced. "You shouldn't have said that… now I'm thinking about it, too."

"We should finish eating, and then get moving."

"But we've been on our feet all day, Andrew."

"And that digimon knows where we are!"

"Good point."

"His ability to fly gives him an advantage right now. I think we should get somewhere where he can't use it."

"That mountain has a cave in the side."

"Great… now we have to climb…"

We'd finished eating, and had been climbing for some time. Finally, thanks to Missimon carrying Frimon for me, we made it to the cave entrance. Inside was a small pad. I goggled wide-eyed as a holographic projection of that bald old man, Gennai, appeared again.

"Ah, I see you made it to the cave. Good, good…"

"Mind telling us what's going on here?" Cole asked impatiently.

"Cole, shut up and calm down." That was me, obviously.

Cole sighed, and Gennai continued. "Myotismon is trying to collect the crests. But more importantly, he wants to go to the Real World and catch the Eighth Digidestined child."

"The Real World? Our World?"

"Yes. It is very important to stop him. Wait until Frimon can digivolve again, and then ride to Myotismon's castle. You have to stop him!!!"

"Where is it?"

"To the north."

"What about Commandramon?" Cole seemed worried. "He can't ride on Liamon's back with us."

"Don't let him digivolve to Commandramon. As Missimon, he can fly along with you."

I nodded. "Good idea. So that flying vampire thing… was Myotismon?"

"Yes. Sorry, but I have to go… this thing is expensive and I'm out of quarters." The image faded away.

Cole looked at me with a look that said, "What the…?" and I returned his look with a look of my own saying, "I don't even _want_ to know…" He got the message, as he always did, and we both laughed. Unspoken communication was one of the cool things about being best friends.

While the digimon seemed confused, Cole and I started talking. "Myotismon, huh?" he said.

"Yeah… sounds like we're in a bad situation…"


End file.
